The present invention relates to irrigation and in particular to providing a directed stream of water to shrubs, trees, and the like.
Plants are generally used to provide inviting outdoor scenery. Often plants are introduced into areas where they do not naturally occur and in many instances these areas do not receive sufficient rainfall to support the plants. In these instances, irrigation must be utilized to provide sufficient water to the plants.
The most common form of irrigation comprises spray nozzles which spray a pattern of water onto a planted area. The nozzles may be a round pattern, a half round pattern, a quarter round pattern, a rectangular pattern, or the like. All of these patterns have a common problem of providing a spray to an area, versus targeting a single plant. As a result, water is spayed onto areas not requiring irrigation. Further, some plants benefit from deep watering. Specifically, it is desire: to saturate a small area around the plant to promote deep root growth. When known spray nozzles are used, a large surface area is uniformly watered, and shallow root growth results.
One alternative to using spray nozzles is a drip irrigation system. Such drip irrigation systems include manifolds and individual lines running to each plant. While a drip irrigation system may provide the desired concentration and resulting deep watering required for some plants, the numerous lines may be inadvertently cut or moved out of their original positions during subsequent yard work. A tree or shrub may die due to lack of water before the damage to the drip system is recognized.
There is thus a need for an irrigation system which provides directed watering without individual lines running to each plant.